Metal Church - Generation Nothing
Metal Church is a band I haven’t kept track of very much since the ’80s. I was a big fan of The Dark and the self-titled debut, but after David Wayne left the band, they kind of dropped off of the radar for me. Occasionally I’d hear a track or two from them over the ensuing years, but nothing through the ’90s and into the 2000s impressed me enough to check them out again. This is, quite literally, the first Metal Church album I’ve listened to in its entirety in almost three decades. Comparing it to the legendary The Dark probably isn’t fair, but that’s my last reference point for their music. Generation Nothing isn’t bad. Even compared to The Dark, it doesn’t sound horrible, but the music is just missing that rawness and intensity that the early material had. Ronny Munroe does his best to sound like David Wayne, but his delivery makes him sound more like Udo Dirkschneider to the point I thought I was listening to Accept half of the time. Musically, Generation Nothing is fairly basic “by the numbers” Heavy Metal. There’s nothing here that Metal Church hasn’t done before, and while there aren’t any tracks that blatantly suck ass, none of them stand out. There’s no “Ton of Bricks” or “Watch the Children Pray” to be found here, and that’s what this LP desperately needs. There isn’t a song that instantly gets your head banging and makes you say “Fuck Yeah! Turn this shit up!” when you hear it. Traditional Heavy Metal is really at its best when it has that hook or standout melody. It’s what people remember after the album is over, and Generation Nothing is lacking in that department. Even after repeated listens, my reactions were the same: this is okay, but just doesn’t have what it takes to really be a good album, let alone a great one.
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